The Lifestyle

( 3 )

Overview

What sort of people engage in recreational group sex on a regular basis? David Schisgall's documentary The Lifestyle provides one answer: mostly cheerful, but paunchy, suburban couples who have either slipped into middle age or are starting to advance past it. For the most part, they look like normal workaday folks, and could even be your neighbors. Schisgall interviews 20 members of "swinging" groups in Orange County, CA, and discovers most are happily married often for decades, politically lean a bit right of ...
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Overview

What sort of people engage in recreational group sex on a regular basis? David Schisgall's documentary The Lifestyle provides one answer: mostly cheerful, but paunchy, suburban couples who have either slipped into middle age or are starting to advance past it. For the most part, they look like normal workaday folks, and could even be your neighbors. Schisgall interviews 20 members of "swinging" groups in Orange County, CA, and discovers most are happily married often for decades, politically lean a bit right of center several of his subjects once had careers in the military, and are personally unremarkable once you get past their "hobby." The Lifestyle also reveals why AIDS is all but unknown in "swing" circles and takes a trip to a "Lifestyles" convention where fun seekers from around the country get to know each other in more ways than one. Portraying its subjects with an affectionate sense of humor, The Lifestyle was premiered at the 1999 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival.
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Editorial Reviews

All Movie Guide
The Lifestyle is eye-opening and often quite funny, but never delivers the incisive exploration of this subculture that it promises. Despite the willingness of the participants to literally bare all for the camera, the filmmakers never manage to get any further than their surface attitudes and behaviors. The big problem is that David Schisgall allows the participants to speak without guidance instead of subjecting them to a carefully crafted interview process -- as a result, they devote their interview time to a lot of well-rehearsed "free love" platitudes that sound good but ultimately don't add up to much. As a result, their lifestyle is no less mysterious at the end than it was at the beginning and this makes The Lifestyle an ultimately unsatisfying experience. That said, patient fans of unusual documentaries will be rewarded with some memorably surreal sights if they stick with the film, including a visit to a colorful swinger's convention and a "swing party" finale that suggests the orgy scene from Eyes Wide Shut as directed by David Lynch. However, moments like these are as frustrating as they are intriguing because they hint at the daring documentary that could have been. As a result, The Lifestyle isn't likely to interest anyone other than curiosity seekers.
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Product Details

  • Release Date: 3/13/2001
  • UPC: 720917016474
  • Original Release: 1999
  • Rating:

  • Source: Fox Lorber
  • Format: VHS

Cast & Crew

Technical Credits
David Schisgall Director
Dan Cogan Producer
Byron Estep Score Composer
Andrew Hafitz Editor
Peter Hawkins Associate Producer, Cinematographer
Peter Hawkins Associate Producer, Cinematographer
Ted Hope Executive Producer
David McJunkin Sound/Sound Designer
Serena Savage Associate Producer
James Schamus Executive Producer
Mary Jane Skalski Executive Producer
Eddie Sperry Score Composer
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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 2.5
( 3 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(0)

4 Star

(1)

3 Star

(1)

2 Star

(0)

1 Star

(1)

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Sort by: Showing all of 3 Customer Reviews
  • Anonymous

    Posted October 1, 2010

    Partially accurate...

    "The Lifestyle" is, in many ways, about as accurate a presentation of the philosophy many couples have in choosing to swap partners, but this documentary devotes the majority of its attention to older, 40+ swingers. I'm sure that part of the absence of late-twentysomething and thirtysomething swingers (of which my wife and I, both in our early 30s, have been a part for three years) is due to the reticence of these age groups, most of whom are probably (like us) active parents of young children, participants in the community, or in high-visibility employment. It is still a bit disappointing to see little representation of swingers like ourselves, but still the presentation of the lifestyle is very accurate. For my wife and I, and others with whom we've swapped, sex is recreation there is, and can be, a distinct line between making love with a partner and having sex with someone. And swingers ARE normal people: my wife and I are both public school teachers, soccer coaches, and community activists. Kudos to David Schisgall for presenting a level-headed documentary about the lifestyle, and more so to the participants who agreed to appear on camera as interviewees and as partygoers.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 1, 2010

    HARDY HAR!

    I thought it was done well with the 16mm film look. I still think about it occasionally

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 1, 2010

    If you are hoping to expose someone to the lifestyle

    do not show them this film. The swingers in ''The Lifestyle'' are the senior citizen variety. Not middle age boomers, mind you. We are talking post-retirement folks. Don't get me wrong...God bless these seniors and their active libidos. It's just that I was hoping that somewhere between the world of the tan, shaved, oiled hard-bodied early 20's performance swingers (ummm... are they all east of the Mississippi?) and this group of more relaxed, experienced swingers that this film would focus on the 30-50 year olds who make up a big chunk of swinger demographics. The folks who have kids who are growing up, or gone, and beginning to focus effort/energy on their relationships. There was one couple in the film who were interesting on a number of different levels. You know... intelligent, attractive, thoughtful. Who end up leaving the lifestyle after it begins to have a negative affect on their marriage. Not exactly a ringing endorsement. Taken as a documentary on a fraction of this burgeoning sub-culture I would give it a much higher score. The one star vote is based on the disappointment I experienced when I realized that this isn't the film that I will pop in when we are entertaining friends and we would like to see if they would like to take our relationships to a deeper level. ***

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